Entertainment For Lively Minds
Johnny Marr – who knew?*
Posted by Stan Halen on 20 October 2008 - 12:36am.
I just watched a BBC programme on guitarists (sorry, can't find any iPlayer link) called This Time It's Personal and found myself utterly charmed by Johnny Marr – a witty, wry, erudite English rock star, straight from central casting.
My favourite line was his job description – "turning daydreams into sound" – which has biography title all over it.
Super TV marred (ho! ho!) only by Alan Yentob's breathless delivery – the Hedge out of U2 is, apparently, a "legend" and Botney echoed Iggy Pop's use of the word "prick". Dad! Please don't wear the safari suit!
*Apart from Smiths fans, obviously
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He's a bit of a groover as well......
You don't see the lead singer and the guitarist doing this at gigs very often.
There should be more of it I say.
Overlooked bassist...
...ol' Andy Rourke. I never rated Mike Joyce as a drummer but Rourke and Marr worked brilliantly together. That he had a heroin habit and didn't lose his job when his boss was Moz says an awful lot about how Morrissey viewed his contribution. It is also unfortunate that he settled out of court for £83k when Joyce made £1m in court.
Moz did (temporarily) get rid of him...
... by leaving a note reading 'Andy. You have left The Smiths. Good luck, Morrissey' on the windscreen of his car.
Saw a bit of the programme last night but turned over when The Edge came on (isn't it all down to echo delay with him?): I'll probably watch the repeat, but were John Squire, Bernard Butler or Graham Coxon mentioned in it?
Nope.
Nor Johnny Greenwood or Bonehead either. A straight jump from Marr to Bellamy.
The Hedge...
...happily admitted, and demonstrated, how it's all down to echo delay with him.
Johnny Marr admitted it's all down to tremolo with him.
Not sure Butler or Coxon qualify as 'guitar heroes' though - it's not enough to be a good guitarist - there's an attitude/pose/dress element as well.
Effects Affect
Coxon is the anti-guitar god. Any excuse to post this!
The show was attempting to link electric with key players. For delay I would have rather seen John Martyn over Dave Edge from the U2.
According to the blurb I read...
...it was specifically discussing the stereotypical 'Guitar Hero' rather than significant or key players.
white boy's can dance shock!
hehehe..made my day, G'moring y'all and very, very nice post Scott W.
iPlayer
And here's the link.
Nice one
I'm guessing there's a delay between it going out on TV 1.0 and TV 2.0
Matt Bellamy from Muse...
...is a 'guitar god'? I must be getting old
I wish Johnny Marr
would find a platform worthy enough of his much missed talents - I mean jamming with Modest Mouse or Indie shamblers The Cribs is such a waste.
Strange how three of the country's best guitarists - Marr, Butler & Squire (sounds like a Law firm) have never produced anything that remotely comes close to their original bands, it's a real shame.
Although Bernard Butler's solo album
was very good, and gave him a chance to show what he can do when not constrained by the 'indie culture' that I suspect Morrissey brought to the Smiths party.
What I found intriguing...
... about listening to Mr. Edge, was that in the studio the sound seemed to be more (ahem...) edgy and a far more exciting sound - but when we get full U2, he just becomes a bloke with a echo/delay system played like he's just got the new toys on Christmas morning.
Is Bonio holding him back?
Glad
that Johnny Marr tipped a hat to Bo Diddley and Mona when taking credit for writing the riff from How Soon Is Now?. The first time I heard that Smiths song, I was very surprised that it wasn't The Rolling Stones. The two intros are identical, to a point.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=79434315&i...
Seems that John Sweeney from Salford Uni knew...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7686286.stm